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Hennepin County gets money to solve cold cases

Hennepin County has been awarded a $500,000 federal grant to help law enforcement investigate unsolved criminal sexual assault and homicide cases. The money will pay for additional personnel and DNA testing.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says the testing process is expensive. And Freeman says there is an extensive database of DNA evidence that can be tapped to help solve crimes.

"There's a lot of victims of [sexual] crime, going back to 1991, whose cases have never been solved. And that's always bothered folks," said Freeman. "And all the psychologists tell us that when a perpetrator is finally found and brought to justice, that then the family and the victim begin to heal. We have the capacity to do that now."

Freeman says the grant will also be used to investigate homicides that occur outside Minneapolis. He says Minneapolis police already have federal funds for that.